The present invention relates to molded foam articles. More specifically, the invention relates to a method and mold assembly to allow molded foam articles to be produced with a film web interposed between the foam and the mold assembly.
Foam-in-place packaging is a highly useful technique for on-demand protection of packaged products. In its most basic form, foam-in-place packaging comprises injecting foamable compositions from a dispenser into a container that holds a product to be cushioned. Typically, the product is wrapped in plastic to keep it from direct contact with the rising (expanding) foam. As the foam rises, it expands into the remaining space between the product and its container (e.g. a box formed of corrugated paperboard), thus forming a custom cushion for the product.
A common foaming composition is formed by mixing an isocyanate compound with a hydroxyl-containing material, such as a polyol (i.e., a compound that contains multiple hydroxyl groups), typically in the presence of water and a catalyst. The isocyanate and polyol precursors react to form polyurethane. At the same time, the water reacts with the isocyanate compound to produce carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide causes the polyurethane to expand into a foamed cellular structure, i.e., a polyurethane foam, which serves to protect the packaged product.
In other types of foam-in-place packaging, the foam precursors are injected into a plastic bag, which is then dropped into a container holding the product to be cushioned. The rising foam again tends to expand into the available space, but does so inside the bag. Because the bags are formed of flexible plastic, they form individual custom foam cushions for the packaged products. In several techniques, a specific apparatus is used to make the bag from plastic film while concurrently injecting it with foam. Exemplary devices are assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and are illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,583, 5,376,219, and 6,003,288, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated entirely herein by reference thereto.
In other packaging applications, similar or identical products are repeatedly placed in similar or identical orientations in similar or identically sized containers. Such circumstances increase the need for more standard packaging elements that have a consistent size and shape.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,776,510 and 6,386,850, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated entirely herein by reference thereto, disclose methods and apparatus for automatically molding defined three-dimensional polyurethane foam cushions utilizing the foam-in-place techniques discussed above, but with the added feature of placing a bag containing a foamable composition in a mold as the composition begins to form foam, and maintaining the bag in the mold until the composition has finished forming a foam cushion in a shape conforming to the shape of the mold. These inventions have beneficially combined the advantages of on-demand, foam-in-place packaging with the ability to produce standard packaging cushions having a consistent size and shape.
While the forgoing molding techniques have been highly successful, the inventors hereof have determined that for complex and/or deep-draw mold shapes, the process of placing (“tucking”) the film into the crevices and cavities of the mold can be difficult and ineffective, resulting in molded foam cushions that conform poorly to the mold shape.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for an improved method and apparatus for making molded foam articles having a complex and/or deep-draw configuration.